Dr. Maris was
originally trained as a behavioral
scientist. His Ph.D. in
social-psychology / sociology at the University
of Illinois focused on an epidemiological
investigation of 2, 153 Chicago
suicides. After teaching for two years
at Dartmouth College, Maris went on to receive
5 years of post-graduate training in
psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine in Baltimore and had an additional 5
post-doctoral fellowships in psychiatry (for a
total of 10 years of psychiatric education).

In 1968-69, Dr. Maris
was an NIMH post-doctoral fellow in
psychiatry/suicidology at the Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine (JHSM). From
1969-1973, Maris was an Associate Professor of
Psychiatry at JHSM, Director of its M.D.-Ph.D.
training program in behavioral sciences, a
Deputy Medical Examiner in Baltimore, and
co-administrator of the NIMH suicidology
training grant at Hopkins.

While at Johns
Hopkins, Dr. Maris did both psychotherapy with
suicidal patients and basic suicide research,
as a member of in-patient treatment teams, in
the outpatient clinics and the ER. Maris
also had clinical training at the Los Angeles
Suicide Prevention Center (1968-69), and was a
World Health Organization Fellow in psychiatry
in West Berlin (1971). Dr. Maris
received over $2 million in basic federal
suicide research and training grants from 1968
to 1973 (from the NIMH, NSF, National
Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the
Grant Foundation of NYC). Dr. Maris is a board
certified Forensic Suicidologist.

From 1973 to 2001, Dr.
Maris has been a Full Professor and Chair of
Sociology (1973-84), Professor of Family
Medicine, and Professor of Psychiatry at the
University of South Carolina. Maris has
been continually appointed in medical schools
from 1968 to the present; where he teaches and
supervises residents, medical students and
pre-medical students. In 1979-80, Dr.
Maris was a Yale Foundations Fund Fellow in
psychiatry at the medical school in Vienna,
Austria (where he studied with Dr. Erwin
Ringel).

From 1980-81, Dr.
Maris was the national President of the
American Association of Suicidology. In
1981, he received the Russell Research Award
for his research monograph, Pathways to
Suicide. From 1981 to 1996, Maris
was the Editor-in-Chief of the scientific
journal, Suicide and Life-threatening
Behavior.

From 1985-2001, Dr.
Maris founded and directed the University of
South Carolina Center for the Study of Suicide
(an official SC State agency). From
1993-present, Maris has served on the
scientific advisory committee of the American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention in
NYC. From 1996-99, Dr. Maris was the
Editor of the Review of Suicidology.

In 1986, Maris was
awarded the Killam Fellowship in psychiatry at
the University of Calgary Medical School
(Alberta, Canada). He was made a Fellow
(1990) in the International Association for
Suicide Research, a Fellow in the American
Academy of Forensic Sciences (1994), and a
board-certified Forensic Examiner (1996).

Dr. Maris is primary
author or editor of two important suicide
books. In 1992, Assessment and
Prediction of Suicide was published, and
in 2000, the Comprehensive Textbook of
Suicidology.

In 2008, Dr. Maris
was invited to address the U.S. 110 Congress
on suicide in war. In 2009, Dr. Maris
received his board certification in Forensic
Suicidologist.

Maris's current
work focuses on education, treatment,
publication and consulting in forensic suicidology. He continues to teach
part-time in Psychiatry and Family Medicine at
the University of South Carolina Medical
School, as well as teach some undergraduate
honors suicide and psychiatry courses.